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I’m curious as to why the perco ponds between Almaden Expressway & Meridian are so low again. The Guadalupe is back in its riverbed after being in spate. None of the pipes have been opened to allow the ponds to refill as of 2/03/17. Why?
After years of drought perhaps now the pond life will start to thrive again.
I left a message yesterday but no one has replied. What is going on?

Thank you for the question, Karen. We’re writing a fuller explanation which we’ll post on this blog, but here’s the short answer. During the stormy season, we can’t divert creek water into our ponds because a) the dams used to divert that water must be removed to avoid creating a flood risk and b) currently, the water is very turbid and full of silt. If we divert that into our ponds, the silt would build up in the ponds, making them less effective and we’d have to drain and clean them again. The good news is that we have all year to release water into all of our ponds, and we expect that 2017 will be a good year in terms of groundwater replenishment.